Nigerian President-elect Muhammadu Buhari said he cannot promise to bring back the still missing 219 kidnapped schoolgirls, a solemn admission that comes a year to the day they were abducted by Boko Haram from their boarding school in the Borno state village of Chibok.
"We do not know if the Chibok girls can be rescued," Buhari said according to the Associated Press. "Their whereabouts remain unknown. As much as I wish to, I cannot promise that we can find them."
Buhari's remarks are a far cry from those previously made by current and outgoing President Goodluck Jonathan, who vowed to defeat the Islamist militant group Boko Haram and safely return the victims.
In Abuja, hundreds marched through the streets of the capital on Tuesday in remembrance of the 276 students who were abducted in the middle of the night from Chibok Secondary School for Girls. Many were able to escape their captors, but 219 remain missing.
A total of 219 girls marched in Abuja on Tuesday, each holding a card with the name of a missing student.
"We are here to appeal to the government to do better, we want our girls now and alive," Solamipe Onifade, 16, told the AP.
One student who escaped, Saratu, said she was in bed trying to fall asleep when the militants came.
"The moment the men spoke Hausa, saying they were soldiers and that we shouldn't be afraid, we knew it was Boko Haram," the 19-year-old told Voice of America.
"They told us we shouldn't be in school. That education, 'book,' is bad, 'haram,' and that we should come with them," Saratu said. Boko Haram translates to "Western education is forbidden."
The girls were forced into trucks and driven away after the rebels set the school on fire. Saratu said she jumped from the vehicle and was rescued by a passerby who carried her back home, Voice of America reported.
At the time of the kidnapping it was never really clear where the girls were taken. Witnesses said they were taken to neighboring Cameroon. Boko Haram claimed last year the girls were converted to Islam and sold as brides.
A year later and it's still unclear where they are, or if they will ever be rescued.
"People say the girls are in Gwoza. Others say they have been married off," Yana Galang, whose 17-year-old daughter has been missing since April 14, 2014. "The truth is only God knows where the girls are."
